The threat of climate change and global warming, fueled by relentless commercialization and excessive consumption, has turned into a fighting ground for both policymakers and concerned citizens. The coming decade is set to determine not only a collective response to reducing carbon emissions, but the entire future direction for international development and the global justice movement.
Britain's climate change emissions may be 12% higher than officially
stated, according to a National Audit Office investigation which has
strongly criticised the government for using two different carbon
accounting systems.
The islanders of Tuvalu could lose their homes and much of their land in the coming decades. But the world has yet to figure out how it will deal with them, and millions of others, who may be displaced by climate change.
European governments have been told to plan for an era of conflict
over energy resources, with global warming likely to trigger a
dangerous contest between Russia and the west for the vast mineral
riches of the Arctic.
10th March 08 - Andrew Grice, The Independent (UK)
The Government will today anger environmentalists by signalling its
support for a controversial new generation of coal-fired power stations
and warning that Britain needs to burn more fossil fuels to prevent
power cuts. John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, will say that
"clean coal" has a crucial role to play in filling Britain's energy gap
for the future.
The world could solve many of the major environmental problems it faces
at an “affordable” price, the OECD said Wednesday, warning that the
cost of doing nothing would be far higher.
Carbon trading and offsetting distracts attention from the wider, systemic changes that need to be taken to achieve a low-carbon economy. Promoting more effective approaches to climate change involves moving away from the blinkered reductionism of free-market dogma, the false economy of supposed quick fixes and the short-term self-interest of big business.